Moeka AKUTSU

GEO260 S_2020 Sig LANGEGGER

Webinar Paper
June 24, 2020

Analysis of chapter 11 from a story, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, death, and hope
in a Mumbai undercity

These days, the police's corruption seems to be problematic. In chapter 11 of Behind

the Beautiful Forevers: Life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity, written by Kathrine Boo

(2012), the power relationship between police and citizen in Annawadi and fear toward police

are described. At the beginning of this chapter, Kalu's death was told to Abdul by the

constable looking for Kalu's relatives. Although Kalu was murdered, his death was recorded

as tuberculosis without any investigation. At the same time, the police regarded Kalu's death

as an opportunity to clear the airport ground. After Kalu's death, five of the road boys were

picked up and taken to the Sahar Police Station's unofficial cell. Sanjay Shetty was struggling

with what he saw about Kalu's death and scared of being beaten by police. As he struggles

with fear, he finally committed suicide by drinking rat poison. Ironically, his death was

recorded as a heroin addict who had decided to kill himself because he could not afford his

next fix. On this chapter, I would like to analyze how the police at the Sahar Station

weaponize fear in Annawadi through the aspect of territoriality. In this essay, the territory is

defined as a behavior to regulate locality and affects resources and humans by controlling the

area. It is socially accepted by means of establishing borders and establishing location-

specific rules regulating behavior within a locality. There are two points to discuss. One is

territoriality in the airport. The second is territoriality in the slums Annawadi and Dharavi.

To begin with, the territory of the airport is controlled to hide poverty by threatening

the scavengers. In this story, the Sahar Police Station police wanted to keep the airport clean

not to show poverty. For them, Kalu's death was an excellent opportunity to clean the area.

Five of the road boys were beaten by police to stay away from airport. Otherwise, they might

find themselves charged with Kalu’s murder. This implies that police utilized the fear of

being arrested for regulating the territory clean. Violence interrogation functioned to control

their territory. Furthermore, Mirch mentioned as follows; "Yeah, he stole garbage, but it was

their garbage (Boo, 2012).” This quote indicates airport have rules on what they have on their

territory and right to regulate. His thought represents breaking rules within the territory, and

unauthorized entry to divided territory causes bad results. The airport has its own regulation

about garbage. Thus, the police overwhelmed forcible entry, which makes poverty

remarkable by using fear of interrogation.

What is more, Annawadi and Dharavi are regulated by false data of death and appear

safe. It is also one territory regulated by the police. According to the chapter, “Officially, the

Sahar police precinct was among the safest places in Greater Mumbai (Boo, 2012)." Only

two murders had been recorded in two years. This successful data, however, seems not to be

accurate. They do not detect the murders of inconsequential people. The example is Kalu's
death and Sanjay’s suicide. In Kalu's case, although he was murdered, the cause of death is

recorded as tuberculosis. On the other hand, In the case of Sanjay, he recorded as a heroin

addict who had decided to kill himself though he drank rat poison. Such wrong information

drives the “safe” territory. This is the way how the slums are ruled to hide poverty. So to

speak, the local government created sham of safe territory. Information about a crime is

disappeared or not revealed no matter how people want to know the truth. To illustrate,

Kalu’s father could not know what had really happened. Thus, in Annawadi and Dharavi, the

authorities regulate each place by false data. And the focus is not the protection of citizens

but on showing the territory safe.

In conclusion, two concepts of territory were mentioned above. In the airport, the

police utilized forcible entry, which makes poverty remarkable by using violent interrogation.

The police threatened road boys to arrest as attackers of Kalu. Overwhelming fear enabled

police to regulate airport area. In Annawadi and Dharavi, the territories were regulated by

lying the number of murder and show they are safe. Authorities worked for territory’s poverty

invisible both physically and numerally. In the chapter, threat and manipulation of

information occurred to utilize fear of citizens and keep the territory much safe. The death of

inconsequential people is not investigated and registered as an illness. In my view, such

inequality should not happen to assure citizens' rights no matter how the authorities want to

clean the slum. The regulation of the territory has to be based on equality. The fear toward the
police is not a tool for dominating the locals.

[778 words]
 Reference

Boo, K. (2012). Behind the beautiful forevers: Life, death, and hope in a Mumbai Undercity.
NY Books.